## Facts

- Jean-Baptiste Caire was a French citizen living in Mexico City, where he ran a boarding house during the Mexican revolutionary period.
- One of Caire’s boarders, General Tomas Urbina, held himself out as a major of the Northern Division of the Conventionist Forces, which were occupying Mexico City at the time.
- Urbina demanded that Caire pay 5,000 pesos.
- When Caire could not produce the demanded money, Urbina shot and killed him.
- France presented an international claim against Mexico on behalf of Caire’s estate (including his widow and heirs) before the French–Mexican Mixed Claims Commission.
- Mexico argued it was not internationally responsible because the Conventionist Forces should be treated as bandits or insurrectionists, and because the killing was not an authorized act of the Mexican state.
- Mexico also objected to the Commission’s jurisdiction on the ground that a related claim had been brought (or remained pending) in Mexican domestic claims proceedings.

## Issues

1. Whether the Mixed Claims Commission had jurisdiction where the same underlying events were also the subject of proceedings before a Mexican national claims body (litispendence/parallel proceedings).
2. Whether Mexico incurred international responsibility for the killing where the perpetrator was a military figure associated with Conventionist forces and acted for private ends (extortion) rather than pursuant to lawful orders.
3. Whether ultra vires conduct by a state official or de facto agent is attributable to the state when committed under color of authority and through the use of official means.
4. Whether rules associated with the laws of war (including Hague Convention IV principles) could inform responsibility in a civil-war setting.
5. Whether any conduct by Caire affected recovery (for example, as contributory negligence going to the amount of compensation).

## Decision

- The Commission rejected Mexico’s objection based on parallel or pending domestic proceedings and held it could decide the international claim notwithstanding municipal proceedings.
- On the merits, the Commission held Mexico internationally responsible for Caire’s death.
- The Commission treated the killing as attributable to Mexico because Urbina acted under color of military authority and used the position and means connected to that authority, even if the conduct was unauthorized and motivated by private gain.
- The Commission awarded monetary compensation to Caire’s estate.

## Legal Principles

- An international tribunal’s treaty-based jurisdiction is not necessarily excluded because a related claim is pending before a domestic claims body; parallel municipal proceedings do not, by themselves, bar an international mixed commission from proceeding.
- A state may be responsible for wrongful acts committed by its officials or forces even when those acts are ultra vires and not ordered, if the official purported to act in an official capacity and used means made available by that capacity.
- Attribution and responsibility can rest on the fact that the state placed the actor in a position of authority and provided the instruments through which the wrongful act was carried out, rather than on proof that the state directed or approved the act.
- In assessing responsibility connected to armed forces during internal conflict, a tribunal may draw on general principles reflected in the laws of war (including Hague Convention IV) by analogy.
- Victim conduct may be considered, if at all, in fixing compensation, but it does not eliminate responsibility where the injury results from attributable abuse of official force.

## Conclusion

In *Jean-Baptiste Caire Case*, the French–Mexican Mixed Claims Commission held that Mexico could be held internationally responsible for the extortionary murder of a French national by a Conventionist military figure who acted under color of authority, even without valid orders and for private motives, and it also ruled that pending municipal proceedings did not deprive the Commission of jurisdiction to award compensation to Caire’s estate.


Jean-Baptiste Caire Case, 5 Ann. Dig. 146 (1929)